Global Capacity Melts As China Prepares For Winter Olympics
In normal times Chinese New Year results in every carrier in China adding capacity as demand surges; not this year. Singularly China is responsible for another drop in global airline capacity with 3.1 million seats or 20% of capacity cut compared to last week. The year of the Tiger is hardly off to a roaring start and is perhaps a slippery slope of capacity ahead of next week’s Winter Olympics taking place. Sadly, from an aviation perspective, China may be grabbing all the wrong headlines this week although weather disruption in other parts of the world will have impacted the number of flights operated. All of that a bit later, back to the headlines…
Global airline capacity this week is at 73.7 million representing a 2.6% cut on last week and taking us all back to 31% less capacity than in the same week in 2020; we have made some progress but seem to be stuck at this point, at least for the first quarter of the year. A…